topic Re: First credit card Suggestions??? in Credit Cards

First credit card Suggestions???

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:09:36 GMT

Hello, I am new on here. 23 years old, a little more than a year out of college, and earn in the $50,000 a year as an accountant. I want to get a credit/charge card to start building my credit more before buying a house ina few years. Right out of college, I applied for 2 higher end cards and got denied. I have credit history from paying bills for my apartment and I have had a Shell gas credit card for about 8 months. I was listed on my parents credit card for awhile, and my score is around 700 (680-725) last few times I checked.

I constantly get offers for American Express Gold Card and Zinc Card saying I am pre selected and earned a great card. However, I do not want to apply and get denied again because I hear to many inquires can hurt your credit score. I have also been looking at the capital one no hassle cash card, as that seems to be for people with not much credit history but decent scores. I have not been late on any payments and always plan to pay my balance in full.

Any advice on card is appreciated.

Thank you.

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

DrJim — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:39:22 GMT

You can go to the AMEX website and see if you are preapproved for any cards. I was preapproved for the Gold card and a year later switched to the Delta Gold Skymiles card.

Also, CU's seem to be more lenient, you may want to join one if you don't already belong. I have a Navy FCU card that just went to $15K.

Or, check where you bank since you already have an established relationship with them. I bank with Wells Fargo - they started me off with a $10K limit that they increased to $13.5 after my first year with them.

Good luck. Let us know how things go!

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

coldnmn — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:42:26 GMT

Cap 1 is a good card for building credit. I would guess you would get approved with a $500 dollar credit limit and a $39 annual fee. A better choice is to get a credit card from a credit union. You may have to get a secured card but most will unsecure it within a year and return your deposit. Check out www.whogavemecredit.com it may give you a better understanding of the credit needed. I hope this helps I started with a Cap1 card no annual fee a year ago and was just approved for Discover. Cap1 and Discover are a few that have preapproval sites. They are a soft pull and will tell you what you would more then likely get approved for.

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

castlefox — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:07:22 GMT

+1 to a credit union. Just dont expect crazy rewards. On average you will get a rather low APR from a credit union though.

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:24:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hello, I am new on here. 23 years old, a little more than a year out of college, and earn in the $50,000 a year as an accountant. I want to get a credit/charge card to start building my credit more before buying a house ina few years. Right out of college, I applied for 2 higher end cards and got denied. I have credit history from paying bills for my apartment and I have had a Shell gas credit card for about 8 months. I was listed on my parents credit card for awhile, and my score is around 700 (680-725) last few times I checked.

I constantly get offers for American Express Gold Card and Zinc Card saying I am pre selected and earned a great card. However, I do not want to apply and get denied again because I hear to many inquires can hurt your credit score. I have also been looking at the capital one no hassle cash card, as that seems to be for people with not much credit history but decent scores. I have not been late on any payments and always plan to pay my balance in full.

Any advice on card is appreciated.

Thank you.

From what I understand when you app for more than one AMEX on the same day it counts as one INQ as long as they're all charge cards or all credit cards. (I believe mixing the two would result in two)

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

CreditMuppet — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:51:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Hello, I am new on here. 23 years old, a little more than a year out of college, and earn in the $50,000 a year as an accountant. I want to get a credit/charge card to start building my credit more before buying a house ina few years. Right out of college, I applied for 2 higher end cards and got denied. I have credit history from paying bills for my apartment and I have had a Shell gas credit card for about 8 months. I was listed on my parents credit card for awhile, and my score is around 700 (680-725) last few times I checked.

I constantly get offers for American Express Gold Card and Zinc Card saying I am pre selected and earned a great card. However, I do not want to apply and get denied again because I hear to many inquires can hurt your credit score. I have also been looking at the capital one no hassle cash card, as that seems to be for people with not much credit history but decent scores. I have not been late on any payments and always plan to pay my balance in full.

Any advice on card is appreciated.

Thank you.
From what I understand when you app for more than one AMEX on the same day it counts as one INQ as long as they're all charge cards or all credit cards. (I believe mixing the two would result in two)

Actually the type of card be it charge or credit doesnt matter. Your correct though depending on your score you can app multiiple products charge or credit for a single inquiry though that may depend if you are approved/instantly approved for the first product. Of course if your denied or recon this does not apply and its possible you may end up with more than one inquiry.

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:11:55 GMT

I suggest you start with Capital One. When you have over 6 months of history reporting, then take one of the Amex offers. They will keep coming.

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

KIPPIE12 — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:34:39 GMT

Agree with what Wolf says here, they will keep coming along with other prime lenders.

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:31:09 GMT

I do remember CapOne was the first to accept me when I had no credit and all the other banks denied me. Unfournately CapOne is no longer with me

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:53:16 GMT

Thanks for the advice. I am still torn. What about the chase freedom card? would that be a card I can be approved for considering my shell card, limit 600, ive had for 9 months and a score around 700.

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

coldnmn — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:56:29 GMT

Check out www.whogavemecredit.com I think you will be able to answer your own question.

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:57:27 GMT

Also any info on the Discover more card...would this be an option as well? thanks again

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

Anonymous — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:28:29 GMT

Chase Freedom is not the easiest card to get. Chase can be fussy. They want to see a minimum of 1-2 years credit history (I just had discussion with them about this for my daughter). I wouldn't apply for that yet.

I prefer the Freedom over the Discover card. A lot of people have had a lot of luck with Discover approvals lately however. I do like the rotating 5% rewards.

Discover is still considered a prime card. You can see if you are pre-approved on their website. So long as you have some credit history and a score, you have a shot with Discover. My daughter currently attends a 2 year school, so they would not give her the student Discover. However, they did give her the regular MORE card with a 1000CL. Not too shabby for a 19 year old.

Cap1 is probably the easiest bank to get a card with. My daughter started with a Cap1 card, and at 4 months later got the Zync, then at 6 months got Citi Forward and Discover and one store card.

You have had a gas card for 8 months, so I think you could get Zync. Zync is the easiest AMEX to get.

If it were me, I would start with the Zync, and then if approved, try for Discover. If denied both, then Cap1 as last resort and then no more apps!

I am sure some will disagree.

Re: First credit card Suggestions???

shane82388 — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:51:48 GMT

I personally wouldnt apply for a Chase Freendom or any other prime bank credit card like that if i didnt even have a card yet...

Have you tried the pre-approval thing on Capital One? Orchard Bank? American Express? Discover?

Try those out before you actually apply so you can get a feel if you are pre-approved for anything...if not, then id try to get something like a CapOne or Orchard Bank basic card just to get more than one revovling credit line showing which could increase your chaces of getting a real card.

APPROVED

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:53:27 GMT

Hey guys, I was feeling good and applied for american express gold card and I got approved. Thanks for all the input.

I would like to eventually move from this charge card to another american express credit card. Any suggestions on how to go about this and how long to wait?

Re: APPROVED

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 02:13:36 GMT

Congrats!!! That is great!

With Amex, you cannot do a product change from a charge card to a credit card.

If you were looking at an AMEX credit card, it will require another application (and another hard pull since you did not apply for both at same time).

I would probably wait 6 months to establish some hx with Amex. The charge cards are a little easier to get than the credit cards.

What other Amex card are you interested in?

Re: APPROVED

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:54:07 GMT

Thank you. I would most likely go for the Blue Sky or Blue Cash cards. I will probably wait about a year before applying for one. I just want to try and avoid the big annual fee that kicks in next year with the gold. I figure I have the best shot at getting accepted with american express since I am going to build a relationship with them this year. However, even with an actual credit card, I plan on paying off in full every month (unless theres an emergency). My credit score is in the 700's currently, but I want to build a stronger history since I plan on buying a house in a 2-3 years.